The Concentration Camp Memorial Museum in Beendorf

The shaft complexes "Marie" and "Bartensleben":

The two salt shafts are located just a few hundred meters from the former
inner-German boder, in the communties of Beendorf and Morsleben, in the state of
Sachsen Anhalt. Until 1946 these belonged to the Burbach-Konzern. Burbach leased the shaft complex "Marie" to the Air Force which set up
a munitions plant on the factory grounds. In February 1944, both shaft complexs
were confiscated for the air force industry´s armaments factories.

SS Labor Camp A3:

As a satellite camp of the Neuengamme Concentration Camp, the camp received
the official name "L.L. Hamburg Neuengamme SS-Arbeitslager A3". In the
beginning the camp comprised approximately 750 male prisoners who were assignes
to work on the subterranean construction. As of August 1944, 2000 female
concentration camp prisoners were assigned to work in the armaments industry
(mostly Poles and Hungarian jewisch women). On april 10, 1945 prisoners
were transported to the satellite camp Wöbbelin/Ludwigslust and
Sasel/Hamburg. During the transport, approximately 600 prisoners died. At the
end of April 1945, as part of the "Bernadotte-Aktion", many of the
women who were brought to Sasel were delivered to the Swedish Red Cross and
brought to Sweden. After the war, the mines were under Soviet
administration and the mining machinery was transported to the USSR as part of
reparations payments.From 1956 to 1984, chickens were fattened in the "Marie"
shaft, and after 1987 industrial waste was stored there. As of 1981, the GDR
installed a final disposale site for radioactive waste at the "Bartensleben"
shaft. Today both shaft areas are admininstrated by the government office for
radiation protection.

Memorial Museum:

Due to the initiative of the local school director, an exhibition room was
set up in the school in 1971. To accommodate the increasing number of visitors
since the fall of the Wall, the district of Beendorf is working on redesigning
the exhibit.